WPX Energy discovers shale gas in Niobrara formation in Colorado, US

US-based WPX Energy has announced that it has discovered shale gas at an initial rate of 16 million cubic feet per day at a flowing pressure of 7,300 pounds per square inch at the Niobrara shale well in Colorado, US.

WPX Energy said the well has the potential to significantly expand the company’s natural gas reserves and daily production in the coming years.

The well, which produced at an average rate of 12 million cubic feet of gas per day in the last 30 days, has been choked back to make maximum use of reservoir performance.

The company holds the lease rights of about 180,000 net acres in the Niobrara/Mancos shale formation that lie behind its leasehold position in the Piceance Basin.

WPX’s Niobrara and Mancos shales are located at depths of 10,000ft to 13,000ft, while the Williams Fork is located at depths of 6,000ft to 9,000ft.The company holds 66% average working interest in the Niobrara and Mancos shales.

WPX has spudded about 4,000 wells in the Piceance Basin, of which most are located in the tight sandstones of the Williams Fork formation.

The company intends to spud two additional horizontal Niobrara wells in the Piceance Basin in 2013, following approval.

Drilling will commence within a six-mile radius of the first well and will allow the company to know more about the productive formation across the basin.

The company drilled the first Niobrara horizontal well, located on its Piceance Valley acreage in Garfield County, to a total vertical depth of 10,200ft with a 4,600ft horizontal lateral.

WPX Energy president and CEO Ralph A Hill said that the exploratory work in the Niobrara and Mancos shales of the Piceance Basin followed the company’s previous Mancos shale discoveries in the San Juan Basin, which added 1.3 trillion cubic feet of proved, probable and possible reserves.

"Based on the early indications from this Piceance discovery, we’re talking about the potential to ultimately more than double our current 18 trillion cubic feet equivalent of 3P reserves," added Hill.